Horse on the Lawn — Rachel Dacus

Horse on the Lawn
On the lawn a hobby horse 
rocks on a metal spring, 
wind-galloping. His painted 
eyes cannot see the girl 

who skulks among trees, 
waiting to loft on his leap.
She cannot see her mother 
in spider-light brooding

over ironing, pulling sheets
between the mangle’s plates
while stories above, the father 
measures the ocean with a flat stick.

He cannot see the linen weep 
between hot rollers, fall 
in folds, smiling days
piled white to the sky.

He prisms the house,
planes its corners, smudges
his gray matters on walls,
sanding corners so no one

Can see around them 
to the horse’s stare 
and the child who breaks
into a gallop, hooves billowing.